Packaged integrated circuits are in all portable electronic products, such as cell phones, portable computers, voice recorders, etc. as well as in many larger electronic systems, such as cars, planes, industrial control systems, etc.
Across virtually all applications, there continues to be demand for reducing the size and increasing performance of the devices. The intense demand is no more visible than in portable electronics.
The demands for smaller, higher performance semiconductor devices have motivated the development of new techniques for producing smaller and less expensive semiconductor devices.
One of these technologies involves packaging the integrated circuit chip in as small a form factor as possible and manufacturing the integrated circuit chip as efficiently as possible.
Higher integration and more functions result in large integrated circuit die size. New integrated circuit technology has advanced from Non-low k to 90 nm Low k, and ETC to provide the integration and functionality but introducing problems in package substrates.
Process complexity and cost have become issues with more dense and increased layer substrates such as 2-2-2, 3-2-3, 4-2-4, 5-2-5, etc. The more complex integrated circuits require package substrates with increased manufacturing difficulty and higher costs.
Attempts to meet the package substrate requirements such as “Build-up” methodology result in high cost substrates to accommodate large numbers of power and ground lines as well as signal lines.
These high end packages also often require stiffeners, heat spreaders or hat type spreaders for structural integrity or thermal management. These often-necessary additions can also increase size, complexity, and costs in addition to the substrates.
Virtually all electronic products benefit from increasing features (including functions and performance) in integrated circuit chips all while being designed into ever smaller physical space. These demands are often very visible with the many consumer electronic products including but not limited to personal portable devices, such as cellular phones, digital cameras, and music players.
Despite the advantages of recent developments in semiconductor fabrication and packaging techniques, there is a continuing need for improving performance, functions, manufacturing processes, and costs.
Thus, a need still remains for an integrated circuit package system to provide increased performance, more functions, improved manufacturing processes, and reduced costs. In view of the increasing demand for improved density of integrated circuits and particularly portable electronic products, it is increasingly critical that answers be found to these problems.
Solutions to these problems have been long sought but prior developments have not taught or suggested any solutions and, thus, solutions to these problems have long eluded those skilled in the art.